Where to Download Basketball Games

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Basketball Sky

Image by laffy4k via Flickr

I’ve referred to these links through various posts, but I figured I might as well compile them and make a post with an SEO friendly title (yes, I want to see if this results in more PV for the site)

(I know there are private torrent sites that specialize in sports, but I always have issues with them. I always share enough, but I have difficulty getting tracked properly. The sites below all are public/don’t need any special work to access)

Let’s go!

Btw, if you need help with torrents, see My Torrent Guide.

Enjoy and let me know of your own favorite sources!

Edit: Feb 21, found a great resource on Mixmakers, “NBA Game Data Base – Version 1.0 Release“- it’s a list of games available coupled with download link.s

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16.02.2010 Basketball, Sports No Comments

X-Men Origins: Wolverine [REVIEW - Spoiler Free]

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

x_men_origins_wolverine_posterIf you’re not aware, the big news regarding the piracy scene and movie industry lately was the Internet release of an early workprint of Wolverine, which won’t be released in US theaters until May. The workprint’s basically close to DVD quality, but missing some effects, perhaps 15 minutes of footage, and doesn’t have its own music in there- I read a comment on VCD Quality that said the music was taken from Transformers and is in there as a placeholder, a common practice for works in progress.

As someone’s already been fired for reviewing this, I don’t want to stress how much of a pirate I am, but I will say that I did argue whether I should download it. I had read an article a couple of weeks ago that discussed Gabe Newell’s (he’s the head guy at Valve, makers of the Half-Life franchise and the Steam gaming service) thoughts on piracy, and he felt that a lot of piracy comes from people just not being able to get what they want when they want it. An example he gave was with regional releases- if you’re in the UK, you might have to wait an extra few months for its official release (even if you’re willing to pay) there when you could just pirate the US release right now.

This is what influenced my decision. I didn’t know if I was so into viewing a unfinished version, but then I looked at Megastar’s release calendar, and you don’t see Wolverine listed at all (movies are often listed 2-4 months in advance, so it’s not that Megastar lists later). Some movies come to Vietnam theaters quite quickly; Watchmen came here one week after the US release. But others take quite a while; Dark Knight came 6 weeks after the US release, and Slumdog Millionaire is finally coming here at the end of April, over 4 months after I watched it in the US, 5 months after it was first released in the US, and 1 month after it will have been released on DVD. And a good quality bootleg of that has been available since January, thus greatly negating the motivation for moviegoers here to want to wait it out.

Taking those into consideration, and some positive impressions of the workprint I’d read, I decided to check it out.

I liked it. Wolverine really surprised me, and this is coming from someone who had no particular inclination to go watch it before this. I really thought it would be a dud.

I don’t want to go into extensive details or give you my rating for it, since it wasn’t a final version, but here are some notes:

  • The music, even if it was taken from Transformers, fit the movie well enough. Wasn’t a problem. So I imagine the final version with the real music will be good.
  • Intro parts of the movie to introduce the character were very well done.
  • Liev Shreiber as Victor Creed was a great character. He’s fleshed out well here, while in the comics and cartoon, I tend to think of him more as a dumb Wolverine knockoff.
  • It’s cool to see the partly finished special effects. You can learn a little bit more about how movies are made. I know that some movies have released green screen versions of their movies (Sin City), but maybe this is something more and more action movies should consider doing.
  • The plot is much more complete and well thought out than I was expecting. It made me want to rewatch X-Men and think about how this all connects, and there are a lot of appearances from other comic characters.There’s also an emotional depth that I think is deeper than in any of the X-Men movies.

Knowing that this version isn’t complete and there’s potentially more footage actually excites me. Instead of watching this and thinking, well, I’ve already seen it, no need to see it in theaters, I think of this version as more of an extended trailer. So while before this pirate release, I really wasn’t interested in the movie, now I definitely want to see it whenever it comes out to Vietnam. Will go invite the team at work as well, I think they’d really enjoy it.

See the official trailer below:

video2591268e7ede X Men Origins: Wolverine [REVIEW Spoiler Free]

Update, May 18, 2009: Ended up seeing Wolverine in its premiere weekend at Vincom in Hanoi. Since I originally posted this, I, like Jin and Tu, now believe the leak may have been a PR hoax. Of course, I am not sure why (why release an almost-final version instead of a half finished version with promise) or how they could get away with such a thing (think of their partners), but Wolverine has done pretty well at the box office, so maybe it was quite brilliant. The ironic thing is that Fox initially said that the leaked movie was quite different from the final one, and that’s what made me see it, knowing I could see an even better version once it came out to theaters. The reality is, the two versions are essentially identical. I wasn’t going to see it in theates once I found this out, but ended up giving up my money when I was hanging out with a friend in Hanoi, and there was nothing else decent we could see. In the end, I did like the movie- I gave it a 7/10

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07.04.2009 Books/Comics, Movies, Reviews 2 Comments

My Torrent Guide for You

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Yes, as I have said before, I am a digital pirate.

I won’t try to defend myself. In some ways and interpretations, it’s stealing, and I admit to it. At the same time, I do buy stuff, though much less so since I’ve moved to Vietnam and been surrounded by piracy along with more limited work wages. But still, if you take any machine that I have, whether it be game console like the XBox 360, or DVD player, I guarantee that I have bought at least the average amount (also called the “attach rate”) that a customer will buy for that machine, and most of the time, much more so. I’ve bought many games, dvds, and even music cds that I never opened or played.

Torrents do have its more “gray” uses, though. Like watching basketball when it is impossible to do so in your country (Vietnam). Or checking out old tv shows or games that aren’t really sold anymore. Moving on….

Torrents, What are and How to:

A torrent is basically a file that points to other files. Almost like a map. If you download a torrent, you actually haven’t downloaded anything, just directions to some files. You actually need something that can figure out how to read those directions, like uTorrent.

Download µTorrent – Powerful BitTorrent Client

utorrent My Torrent Guide for You

If you’ve ever downloaded files with your browser, think of uTorrent as a download manager for torrent files. It knows how to find all the files you want. I don’t want to get too detailed on how to set it up, but here are some general tips once you’ve installed it.

Setting a download location:

utorrent003 thumb My Torrent Guide for You

Once you have uTorrent installed, go to the menu bar (up top), click on Options and then Preferences. (You can also click Ctrl-P).

utorrent004 thumb My Torrent Guide for You

Under directories, choose a location for your files (this is where the actual files will be stored. Remember this directory. Click OK to save.

Back to the uTorrent interface, look at the bottom, right:

utorrent005 thumb My Torrent Guide for You

You will find some funny numbers with D: and U:

D: means your download rate, U: means your upload rate. Normally, if you don’t change these settings, uTorrent will use all your bandwidth, which could upset your housemates, wife, etc., and interfere with normal internet usage. You can adjust these by right clicking on the D: to adjust the download rate (I suggest 10-20 kB/s) and then U: for the upload (match the download rate if possible).

Oops, one more thing. When you download torrent files from your browser, make sure when you get prompted if you want to download or open them, open them. Downloading them will do nothing, so open them like I show you below. If you have uTorrent installed, uTorrent will automatically handle it for you from there.

utorrent006 thumb My Torrent Guide for You

Torrents, Where to find:

Here are my recommendations, the sites I use:

General/Everything:

From movies to music to ebooks to games to tv shows. If you’re looking for movies try axxo or klaxxon in the search- results with those tend to be legit. The Pirate Bay is likely the most famous torrent site out there, but I much prefer Mininova and BtJunkie. You can also try Demonoid, but it’s not easy to get an account there.

Anime:

Comics:

Games:

Sports:

Other:

Last Notes:

Since many torrents link to files that are considered piracy or illegal, you do have to think about whether you’re ok with that. Depending on where you live, there may be repercussions. Mike, for examples, does not torrent anymore now that the various industries have started suing users. If you want to make sure there’s no chance of legal consequences, just don’t torrent. Simple.

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31.03.2009 Books/Comics, Movies, Music, Tech 2 Comments

Jedi Knights are A**Holes

Friday, April 25th, 2008

images8 thumb Jedi Knights are A**Holes Over the past couple of weeks, I started rewatching the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD, and then became interested in the prequel trilogy and I remembered how there was supposed to be a really good fan edit of Episode 1. Back when the edit was first released, I didn’t know how to get it, but this time around I found “The Phantom Edit” on torrent.

Watching Episode 1 again I realized, Jedi Knights, at least in the newer movies, are really a bunch of d*cks.

Episode 1:

  • Obi-Wan asks “What is this thing” in reference to Jar Jar Binks
  • Qui-Gon uses Jedi mind trick on a king, Boss Nass, to “convince” him to provide transport to the Naboo territories.
  • In Tatooine, Qui-Gon Jinn tries to rip off Watto, the shop dealer, repeatedly using his Jedi mind-trick to no effect.
  • When gambling for Anakin with Watto, Qui-Gon changes the path of the cube so that he can get the bet on Anakin. (What happened to destiny?)
  • Obi-wan asks Qui-Gon, “Why do I get the sense we’ve picked up another pathetic life form?” in reference to Anakin.
  • Mace Windu. Complete a**hole. I would have wanted to kill him too. Every scene he is in, in any of the three episodes, he is a complete bastard.
  • The Jedi Council claims that Anakin is too old (9), yet 30 years later say the same thing about Luke when Luke is more than 20 years old. This is anti-Skywalker bias! Anti-Tatooine racism! Good thing Yoda died. Otherwise, who knows what he would have said about Leia learning the force. (see Ep. VI)

Other Notes:

  • Notice that Anakin is much more of a punk ass as he gets older, as becomes more and more a Jedi. In Episode I, maybe some would consider him annoying, but he’s a decent kid. In Episodes II and III, however, that’s when he goes more crazy and is increasingly less mature. Very unstable and emotionally destructive. And somehow, this is Anakin’s fault, not the people (Jedis) who took care of him those years.
  • Anakin was born to bring balance the Force. He did. At the end of Episode III, note that there are now 2 dark side and 2 light side “employees”. In Episode I, there’s a whole ton of Jedi (the Jedi council), yet there only the Dark lord and his Apprentice. Come on, what’s this balance people are talking about? Dummies.

In Episodes I-III, the Jedis are a bunch of lying, racially-prejudiced cheaters, power hungry to do whatever they want to meet their needs. They claim they are “good”, yet honestly, is there really that much evidence that they are? Do you want to meet a Jedi on the street after watching I-III?

In IV-VI, though, the Jedis are much more down to earth as human beings. A little more priest-like, much nicer and balanced towards all races. Imagine with Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan would have said about Chewie!

Anyway, I could probably write 2000 more words on why the prequel trilogy sucks (yes, even episode III), but who cares.

As for the edit, I liked it. I think the editing makes Ep. I feel maybe too quick (the editor could only edit the existing source dvd after all, not re-shoot scenes or change the script), but I’d much rather see this one than the original. The “Phantom Editor”, as he’s called, also released an edit of Ep. II, but I haven’t been able to finish downloading it to check it out.

More information on both the edits is below. You can find the movies on torrent sites, if you’d like to watch them for yourself.

—-

STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM EDIT
Mike Nichols (a.k.a. The Phantom Editor)

This is it. The most famous, first one, starting it all SW episode 1 fanedit. A masterpiece. A milestone. A must-see!

Original Runtime : 133 min
New Runtime : 115 min

Amount of time Cut/Added : 18 min cut

Cuts removed/added/extended :
* removing or re-editing most scenes featuring Jar-Jar Binks
* limiting redundant exposition throughout film
* trimming reiteration of the politics
* re-arranged shots and scenes matching original trilogy presentation style
* removing “Yippee” and “Oops” from young Anakin’s dialog in order to make him a stronger character

——-

STAR WARS EPISODE 2: ATTACK OF THE PHANTOM
Mike Nichols (a.k.a. The Phantom Editor)

what is it about? The phantom editor strikes again! Don’t miss the brilliant commentary. This is a very interesting and professionally edited take on ATTACK OF THE CLONES

Original Runtime : 142 min
New Runtime : 104 min

Amount of time Cut/Added : 38 min cut

Cuts removed/added/extended :
lots and lots of cuts and tweaks.

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25.04.2008 Movies, Reviews No Comments

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